


What Are Idol's Made Of?

by ladyc2



Category: KAT-TUN (Band), Kanjani8 (Band)
Genre: Gen, Horror, Humor, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-03
Updated: 2014-11-03
Packaged: 2018-02-23 23:13:46
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,330
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2559320
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ladyc2/pseuds/ladyc2
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kanjani8 live in a share house, but what exactly <i>is</i> Maru making in the garage?</p>
            </blockquote>





	What Are Idol's Made Of?

**Author's Note:**

> Written for je_trick_or_fic. Thanks to ryosukekoibito for the beta read.

Ryo pulled the pillow over his head and clamped down, in what he knew from past experience was a futile attempt to drown out the loud whining noise currently filling the entire house. _Get a share house Ryo; it’ll help with expenses while you’re in Tokyo. Oh look, fellow Osakan’s – now you won’t feel lonely and it might help stave off homesickness. Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!_ He should have known really that it was too good to be true; especially when he'd shown up at the house and found it was really more of a mansion. He should have bore in mind the saying that if something looks too good to be true it probably is; at the time he'd just thanked his lucky stars.

He groaned, giving up, and threw the pillow - the whoosh it made as it connected with the opposite wall not nearly satisfying enough. This was the fourth, or maybe fifth (it was becoming hard to keep track with the sleep deprivation) night in a row. He had an important presentation at work tomorrow; he didn't have time for this.

After a particularly high pitched screech that was closely followed by what sounded like breaking glass, Ryo had had enough. He climbed out of bed and stormed out of his room. He wasn't at all surprised to find the other occupants of the share house also staggering from their rooms. 

The door to Subaru’s room swung open and he came out brandishing a baseball bat. "I don't care if he is the landlord I'm going to kill him!" 

Hina and Yoko both moved to grab him and hold him back while Yasu made calming motions. 

"I thought someone was going to talk to him about this." Hina yelled over the whining. 

All eyes turned towards Ohkura.

"I tried," Ohkura pleaded, "I took him out to lunch and everything.” He looked down, dejected. “I thought he understood."

“He’ll understand this,” Subaru interjected, holding up the bat again. 

Ryo eyes met each of the others in turn, unspoken agreement in each one. Subaru's idea might be taking things a little too far but _something_ had to be done - enough was enough! 

\---

Maru’s laboratory was located at the very back of the mansion, set off from the rest of the house by a small covered walkway. It had probably been a garage once, holding a fancy car or two, but now Ryo wasn’t sure what was in there. It was definitely the source of their sleeplessness though; the sound grew more intense the closer they got (Ryo was starting to wish he’d brought some earplugs) until finally they reached a big wooden door with a large “No Entry” sign hanging from it, slightly askew. Ryo didn’t bother trying to knock; it wouldn’t be heard over the noise anyway; just reached for the doorknob. Just as he touched it however, the noise stopped. He snatched his hand back in surprise, then felt stupid when the noise didn’t resume. _Just a coincidence._

A whoop of joy resounded from inside and then the sound of locks being opened and bolts and latches being undone. Ryo exchanged looks with everyone else as the door finally swung open.

Maru looked surprised to see them all on the other side of the door.

“You’re up, already? That’s great, I was just going to come and get you,” he exclaimed, completely oblivious to mood surrounding the rest of them. Ryo hoped that somebody behind him was holding Subaru back, because it didn’t look like this was going to end well at all. 

Maru beamed. “Well, are you coming in? You’re never going to believe what I’ve made.”

\---

Ryo stepped through the door cautiously, not really sure what he was expecting to find. Not that he thought he could explain it once he did clap eyes on the room. The back wall was filled with all sorts of unimaginable equipment, cables strung across them like an out of control spider’s web. Cupboards lined the right wall and a large bench in the middle was cluttered with test tubes and beakers and other paraphernalia Ryo couldn’t identify. If he had to describe it, he'd say it looked like a mad scientist’s lair straight out of a cheesy horror film.

In the midst of the mess stood four men. Correction - four very naked men. Ryo averted his eyes, focusing on a flask with some sort of blue liquid in it instead. 

"Uh, why are there naked people in your laboratory?" Hina asked.

Maru's voice sounded excited as he replied gleefully. "I made them!"

 _Made them? What the hell was that supposed to mean?_ Ryo returned his gaze to the four people in question. They were standing awfully still now that he was looking closely - like they weren't real at all. 

"What do you mean by you made them?" Hina just barely beat him to the question.

Maru seemed only too happy to explain. "I was watching this documentary on manufactured pop bands the other week, and it suddenly occurred to me - 'I could do that' - so, voilà!" He gestured proudly to the four figures.

Hina whacked Maru over the head. "Idiot! When they said manufactured, they didn't mean _literally_."

Maru frowned. "They didn't?"

“So you made four people?” Ryo asked just to clarify, because despite Maru’s answers he was hoping somehow he’d misunderstood.

“Actually I made six." Maru shook his head sadly. "But two didn’t really work out very well.”

Yasu was tentatively poking one. "What are they made out of? They feel so real."

"That's because they are real - 100% human flesh."

Yasu recoiled in horror. Maru continued on obliviously,

"I have this friend at the morgue, you see. Of course you can't take whole bodies, think of what their families might say if they saw them on TV later. Plus it wouldn't really be making somebody then - kind of like cheating.” He laughed as if cheating was the biggest problem with what he’d done. “But an arm here and a leg there - nobody really notices. It did take an awfully long time to stitch them together though."

"I don't think I want to hear any more of this," Ohkura moaned. 

Ryo kind of agreed, but it seemed Yoko was fascinated. He moved beside Yasu and started examining them closely.

"If you sewed them up from different parts, why aren't they covered in stitches?" he asked curiously.

Maru bounced over to him excitedly.

"Aha! I'm glad you asked." Maru pulled a small device out of one of his lab coats with a flourish. "It's called an S.E.D. - Scar Eraser Device. I got the idea from Star Trek and,"

"Are there any ideas you _don't_ get from television?" Ryo interrupted. He still couldn't believe what he was hearing. Maru gave him a look like a wounded puppy.

"It's still in the prototype stage and I wasn't really sure it would manage them all, but it _actually_ worked. That’s what I was so excited about."

Hina plucked it out of Maru's hands. “If this thing really works maybe you should be developing this, not wasting your time making pop idols. Think of the medical implications.” He flicked the switch, and the whining noise, at near deafening levels started up again. Ryo clamped his hands over his ears and saw the others do the same. The four "pop idols" remained motionless in their spots, not reacting in the slightest. Ryo shuddered - creepy. Maru grabbed the device back off Hina, switching it off.

“It’s still got some flaws,” he admitted reluctantly. 

“But your perfect pop idols don’t?” Ryo questioned.

“Hard to say - they aren’t finished yet. I’ve had to rewire their brain’s electrical impulses so they don't remember their past selves. Theoretically, it should also give them brand new personalities and a few added pop idol traits; but I won’t know for sure until I activate them. Physically they’re perfect though.”

“Are you sure about that?" Yoko asked. "This one’s nose seems a little big.”

Maru bounced over to where Yoko was standing next to the second tallest of the four men.

“Really?” he asked peering at the nose, “I thought it was great. Very distinctive. In fact this one’s my favourite, I was thinking of naming him after myself. What do you think of Marunaka?”

“…” 

“Or you could go with Nakamaru?” Yoko suggested instead.

“Ooh, I like it!” Maru beamed.

"I've had enough!" Subaru suddenly yelled. Everyone turned to look at him. Ryo had almost forgotten he was there he'd been so quiet up to this point. He pointed at Maru. "You're a freak. And this whole thing is," he paused, "freaky. And weird. I'm going back to bed." And with that he whirled on his heels and stormed out.

An awkward silence filled the room following Subaru's departure. Everyone seemed to be avoiding looking at each other or Maru and his creations. Ryo couldn't blame Subaru for his outburst - he kind of felt the same way. Ohkura moved next, eyes cast downwards towards the floor as he shuffled out. Hina cleared his throat, before nodding decisively to himself and making his way to the door. He caught Yasu and Ryo's eyes, urging them to leave too. Yasu seemed torn, throwing apologetic looks towards Maru as he followed the others out. Ryo sighed and did the same. Only Yoko stayed behind. It was quiet on the way back to their rooms, no one daring to say anything about what they’d just found out. 

\----

Ryo slammed the door shut and practically tore off his shoes, before stomping into the house heading straight for Maru's laboratory. He'd had a lousy day; his presentation had gone horribly - so horribly that afterwards his boss had pulled him aside and asked if this was the job he really wanted to be doing. _Jerk!_ He thought he was so great. He'd like to see if he could do any better with barely any sleep and a roommate who was creating _things_ (Ryo was not going to call them people, he just wasn’t).

He marched over to the four men, picking one of the two that was closest to his own height so he could look it in the eye. 

"This is all your fault," he spat at it. 

The figure before him blinked. Ryo sprang back. _That was impossible, they weren't turned on yet._ He leaned in again but there was no movement. He breathed a sigh of relief - _must have been imagining things._ He glanced at the other three figures, also perfectly still, before turning his attention back to the one in front of him.

He hadn't really given them much of a look over the night before. At least they were wearing clothes now. He studied it closely - short black hair, shaped eyebrows, and a nose that looked like it had been broken at some point. Ryo paused, wondering how that happened. Had it been broken when Maru had grabbed it from the corpse (why wouldn't he take an unbroken one?) or had he dropped it at some point? Why was he even thinking such disturbing thoughts?

He turned his attention towards the two others to try and clear this morbid line of thinking. _Wait - two others. Shouldn't that be three?_ He was sure all four of them had been standing together when he came in. He spun around and came face to face with the fourth standing right behind him.

"Iriguchi, Deguchi, Taguchi desu!" It said as it waved its hands about.

Ryo screamed and tried to jump back, but he tripped and ended up sitting in an undignified heap on the floor. All four of the 'things' were laughing now. Ryo glared up at them.

"See, I told you it would be funny," the one who surprised him said.

The one Ryo had yelled at stepped closer to him, offering a hand.

"Sorry," he remarked still smiling in amusement, "It was all Taguchi's idea."

Ryo stared at the hand for a few moments – not sure he wanted to be touching one of these things - before reluctantly accepting the help. He was almost surprised at how normal it felt right down to a warmth lingering after it had let go. 

"I didn't know you were…" Ryo fumbled for an appropriate term, "awake yet?"

The one they'd named Nakamaru yesterday spoke up, "Maruyama-sama finished."

"Don't say that," Ryo interrupted.

Nakamaru frowned. "Don't say what?"

"Maruyama-sama. Just - It sounds wrong."

"Ah!" Nakamaru tried again. "Maruyama-san."

Ryo shook his head. "Don't say it like that either."

"Maruyama-k,"

"Just Maru, okay! Just Maru!"

"Okay.” Nakamaru sounded like he was appeasing a crazy person. “Maru activated us this morning. He and Yokoyama-s…Yoko, have been helping us."

"And where are they?" Ryo looked around like they might be hiding to jump out and trick him too.

"Yoko had to go to work and Maru said he needed supplies from the hardware store," the one who scared him said, easily slipping into using the nicknames.

Ryo nodded. _Now what?_ He didn’t really want to stand around with these things all day making awkward small talk. He was still pretty angry about how his day had gone.

"My stomach's making funny noises," the fourth one, who hadn’t said anything up to this point, complained.

"Did they feed you at all since waking you up?” 

They all shook their heads and Ryo sighed. Great, now he was babysitting these things.

They all followed Ryo back through the house to the kitchen. Luckily there was some rice in the rice cooker and Ryo dished up four bowls.

"So what exactly have they been doing with you all morning?" he asked.

"Testing, mostly," Nakamaru replied around a mouthful of food. "Oh and they gave us names."

Ryo listened as they all introduced themselves. Nakamaru had been given the name Yuichi; the one who had scared him was named Taguchi Junnosuke. He redid his thing from before which was some sort of introduction joke that Yoko had taught him. The hungry one was named Ueda Tatsuya and the one he’d yelled at was Kamenashi Kazuya.

"Kame...nashi?" Ryo's lips twitched. Yoko must have gotten bored of naming them by that time and just picked the first two things he laid eyes on. A turtle and a pear. It wouldn’t surprise him to find that Maru had such random things sitting around in his lab. 

After they’d finished eating, Ryo led them to the lounge room. He didn’t feel like walking them back to the lab and it didn’t seem right to let them wander off on their own. He turned on the TV for them and showed them where the magazines were kept on a nearby table. Hopefully they could find something to entertain themselves with until Maru or Yoko came back.

An hour or so later Maru burst into the room, clutching his heart like he was in the middle of cardiac arrest.

"They're gone!" he wailed.

Ryo looked up from the magazine he was reading. "Who's gone?" 

"My idols! They aren't in the lab anymore and I – " He stopped finally noticing the presence of the others. "You're here?"

"Of course they're here." Ryo retorted sarcastically. At Maru’s perplexed look, he added, "Since you forgot to feed them, I brought them up to get some food."

Understanding dawned on Maru’s face. "Ah, well carry on then."

Ryo slammed the magazine down. “No, now it’s your turn again.” He got up, stalking over to where Maru was standing. “I’m not your babysitter,” he added before turning to leave.

“Thank you!” A voice yelled out and Ryo turned back to see Kamenashi bowing towards him. “Thank you for helping us out,” he repeated. Taguchi gave him a wave and a smile and Nakamaru bowed too from where he was sitting. Ueda followed suit – a little more reluctantly. 

Ryo tilted his head down in acknowledgement, a small stab of guilt going through him at his words. He tried to shake it off as he walked back to his room. Why did he care if he’d been dismissive of them – they were just _things_. He remembered the warmth of Kamenashi’s hand in his own and his hand clenched involuntarily. _Things_ , he told himself again.

\---- 

The notebook was shoved underneath his nose and Ryo blinked down at it in confusion.

"What do you think?" Yasu asked.

"What is it?"

"Lyrics," Yasu answered, "I've been working on it all night. I pretty much have the melody done too, but I find that a little easier than lyrics so I wouldn't mind a second opinion."

Ryo looked back up at Yasu.

"Since when do you write songs?"

Yasu looked at him like he was crazy. "Um, it's what I do for a living."

"Eh!"

"You didn't know?"

Ryo shook his head. He’d had no idea. He focussed on the notebook again. The song was titled ’Kusabi’ and reading the lyrics Ryo started to feel a little jealous of his housemate. He’d had some aspirations towards a music career when he’d been younger but it had never been more than a few hastily written words and notes and an untapped dream, and yet here was his friend writing full-blown lyrics and music and at a much higher level than he could probably ever aspire to.

“It’s great,” Ryo said honestly. 

“Really? I mean I put in all that stuff about secrets as a reference to their creation, but I was worried it might be a bit too much.”

Ryo assured him it was fine and that everyone would interpret it as lovers’ secrets and such. Now that he was thinking about it however…if they did somehow manage to break into the idol scene, people would start questioning where they came from. It was probably some sort of criminal offence and it was unlikely the police would believe the rest of them knew nothing about it. He left Yasu, who had decided to make a few more tweaks to his lyrics and went in search of Yoko. Ryo found him in one of the studies, but when he expressed his concerns, Yoko waved them off. 

“We’ve already thought of that. Hina’s coming up with some backgrounds for them.” 

Ryo felt a little relieved at that. Hina worked for a PR firm and knew all the best ways to manipulate the media and obscure real facts – like the fact that some new idols didn’t have backgrounds at all (or that they had too many backgrounds since they were made up of lots of different people – Ryo didn’t really like going down that train of thought though – he wondered if it would ever get less creepy).

Yoko went back to doodling on a sheet a paper. “The more pressing problem is a group name.”

Ryo moved over to the table to see what Yoko was writing. The paper was covered with names, everything from NEWS to TOKIO to V6.

“V6. You do remember there are only four of them?”

“Yes, but Maru said there was originally six.”

“But you’ll have people asking who the other two were and where they’ve gone.”

“All right, All right,” Yoko muttered, crossing it out along with the others.

Ryo pointed out a string of letters, KKJTTUYN off to the side.

“What’s that?” he asked.

“The initials of their names. I thought about trying to include them in the name somehow, but the closest I got was KismYfT2.”

Ryo looked over some of the other choices again but his eyes kept drawing back to the letters. It didn’t look too bad, but it would be completely unpronounceable. “Not enough vowels,” Ryo pondered out loud. 

“You’re right,” Yoko agreed. “Kamenashi, Taguchi.” He snapped his fingers. “They both have an ‘a’ as their second letter.” He quickly scribbled the letters down again this time replacing the second K and the J with an A to make KATTUYN. He looked up at Ryo for confirmation.

“Better,” Ryo said, “It’s seems a little lob-sided though. Try cutting out the Y.”

KATTUN

“That’s great,” Yoko exclaimed, “and it even has six letters to sneakily reference the other two.”

Ryo hadn’t even thought of that, he was busy concentrating on the letters. Something about it still wasn’t quite right, like it was missing something. The symmetry was still a little off. He grabbed the pen out of Yoko’s fingers rewriting the name KAT-TUN. He smiled putting the pen down. Yoko looked up at him, pleased.

“Wow, you’re really good at this Ryo-chan.”

Ryo could feel his face heating up in embarrassment and he tried to protest that he hadn’t really done anything but Yoko just got up, grabbed his arm and dragged him into an adjoining room where KAT-TUN seemed to be goofing off playing some sort of game using Taguchi’s introduction joke. 

He climbed up on one of the couches and proclaimed, “I now present KAT-TUN,” he gestured towards the four who just looked at him blankly. “That’s your new group name,” he explained.

“KAT-TUN.” They all started to try it out, nodding to each other and smiling as they decided they liked it.

“All thanks to Ryo-chan here,” Yoko came back down off the couch and threw an arm around Ryo, who tried to twist out of it.

“Thank you – again.” Kamenashi smiled at him, a soft smile that was filled with such warmth and happiness that Ryo found himself smiling back almost on instinct. _How did he do that?_

Yoko clapped him on the back. 

“I know you’ve been a little reluctant about this whole thing, but we could really use your help. They’ve got a long way to go before they’re ready for the real world.”

When he saw the hopeful look on Kamenashi’s face at Yoko’s words, Ryo found himself agreeing to help.

\----

Ryo followed the sounds of music towards one of the many empty rooms in the mansion. He pushed open the door carefully. KAT-TUN was in the middle of the room moving to the music. Everyone was there except for Subaru who was still refusing to have anything to do with Maru’s creations.

"What are we doing?" Ryo asked.

"Dance practice," Yoko explained.

Ryo turned his attention to the four men in the middle of the room. Ryo could tell they were all doing the same basic moves, but they all seemed more interested in putting their own personal touch into each step than co-ordinating themselves.

"They're not very in-sync are they?" he noted. Just then Kamenashi ran his fingers suggestively down his body while his tongue ran over his bottom lip; his eyes lowered in the most suggestive ‘come hither’ look Ryo had ever seen.

Next to him Ohkura gulped,

"I don't think anyone's going to care."

\-----

The next week went by in a blur; Ryo would often come home from work to find KAT-TUN practicing their singing or dancing, or grouped around one of the other housemates, learning different things. Occasionally one of them would do something unexpected so perfectly that it was clear they’d done it before. Maru would fuss around them and take them to his lab for testing though nothing would ever come of it. The best explanation was that fragments of their past lives survived the brain rewiring and would periodically pop up and be integrated into their new neural pathways. 

Today they were all lounging around not doing anything in particular. That was almost unusual in itself – Hina and Yoko were determined to have KAT-TUN be idol ready as soon as possible and they set a gruelling schedule. Ryo made his way over to Kamenashi to find out what was up, bypassing the other members on the way. It’s not that he didn’t like the others; he got along fine with both Nakamaru and Taguchi (even in spite of the bad gags). Ueda was a little more difficult - he just didn’t understand the other man for some reason and they clashed occasionally because of it. It was just that he found himself more drawn towards Kamenashi, more comfortable – and there were few people in life he’d ever felt truly comfortable around.

“Not practicing?” he asked as he reached the other man.

“Taking a break,” Kamenashi replied easily, tossing a baseball up in the air and catching almost absent-mindedly. Ryo hadn’t seen him with the ball before. 

"Where'd you get the baseball?"

"Ah, Subaru gave it to me."

Ryo looked around and sure enough Subaru was huddled down on one of the couches where Ryo hadn’t been able to see him. He threw him a questioning glance and Subaru cleared his throat before answering. 

"We were watching a baseball game earlier. He seemed really into it, so I thought he might like it.”

"I thought you weren't interested in them."

Subaru shrugged, looking away at the far wall so he didn't have to meet anyone's eyes. "They're kind of cute."

Ryo bit his lip trying not to laugh at Subaru's confession. It seemed KAT-TUN had wormed their way into everyone’s hearts. If they could pull off the same thing with the general public then their future as pop idols might not be so far-fetched after all.

Ryo was actually starting to think they might be able to pull it off.

 

\----

Everyone was gathered around the phone as Hina talked to one of Yasu's contacts in the music industry. He was attempting to get KAT-TUN their first gig but from the half of the conversation Ryo could hear he wasn’t having much luck.

“If you just listen to a demo of their work I’m sure you’ll…” he trailed off as the person on the other end of line answered.

Yasu had got some of his friends in the music industry to also write songs for KAT-TUN and this was Hina’s next tack.

“Their songs are written by Yasuda Shota and other famous composers and lyricists. I’m sure if you just listen – ”

Again it seemed the person on the other end of line wasn’t interested. Ryo knew the type – just like his boss at work they thought they knew everything and didn’t bother to listen to new ideas or give them a chance. Ryo had had enough; there was only one way to deal with such people. He grabbed the phone off Hina.

“What was your name?” he asked.

“Uh, Saito Mori,” the voice down the other end of the line answered hesitantly.

“Sorry for bothering you Saito-san, we won’t trouble you anymore,” Ryo put on his most pleasant voice. He could see the others looking at him horrified as they waved their arms trying to get him to stop. Ryo just gave them a thumbs up sign. “Good luck with your new job,” he added. _1, 2, 3…_

“New job?” Saito asked curiously.

“Yes,” Ryo explained smirking at how easily he’d fallen for the bait, “when KAT-TUN hits it big and word gets out that you could have signed them up sooner but passed on the opportunity – and word _wil_ l get out Saito Mori-san – I’m sure that you’ll be on the lookout for a new job.”

There was a brief silence on the other end of line and then, “There is one gap in the line-up for the variety concert but we were planning on filling it with an enka performer.”

“But that’s not confirmed yet?” Ryo asked knowing this was his shot. _Enka? Who listens to that anymore?_

“No,” Saito admitted.

“Good, then we’ll be sending you a demo tape. I’ll expect to hear positive confirmation of our performance schedule within the week.”

More silence and then a reluctant, “Agreed.”

“Nice doing business with you Saito-san,” Ryo added before hanging up. 

The others were now wearing expressions of disbelief and happiness. 

“I can’t believe you did that,” Yoko exclaimed.

“It’s not over yet. Even if he likes the demo, he’ll probably still try to worm his way out of it or get the upper hand in any arrangement when he calls back.” People tended not to like being tricked into things and their pride made them too stubborn to admit they were wrong.

“I’m sure you’ll handle that too,” Yoko said with full confidence.

“You did a better job than me,” Hina agreed, “Maybe _you_ should be their manager.”

Ryo didn’t know what to say to that. 

\-----

Ryo wasn't sure if it was the storm raging outside his window or Hina's out there suggestion that he become manager to a group of pop star wannabes, but Ryo found himself unable to sleep. He was certain that he hated his current job, but did that mean he should throw away a steady income on the chance that KAT-TUN could make a name for themselves. Scratch that, if he became their manager, it would be his responsibility to make them happen. _Was he really up to that task?_ The thoughts whirled in his head, punctuated by claps of thunder, until finally Ryo gave up the pretence he was sleeping. Maybe some warm milk would help.

Ryo was surprised to see the lights on in the kitchen. At this time of night he assumed everyone else would be asleep (except maybe Maru, but he'd more likely be holed up in his lab). Someone else was definitely up though and from the smells coming from the kitchen, they weren't just making warm milk. 

He entered quietly, not wanting to disturb the person cooking. He was surprised to find it was Kamenashi, bent over the stovetop, a look of deep concentration on his face as he stirred the pot. Ryo stood there watching the other for a while. This was yet another side to Kamenashi Ryo hadn’t seen before. Gone was the pop star veneer that came out whenever the music started. Gone was the polished speaker who seemed to know just the right (fake) story to tell when they practiced interviews. Even the childish side of him that had everyone affectionately calling him Kame or Kame-chan after a few days in the house was nowhere to be seen. Could this be the real Kamenashi or was it just yet another facet of the man before him? 

Ryo must have made some sort of noise because Kame looked up from his stirring.

"Hi," he greeted softly.

"Smells good." Ryo nodded towards the food. 

Kame shrugged. “The proof is in the taste.”

"I didn't know you knew how to cook. Has Yoko been teaching you?"

Kamenashi shook his head. "No, I just had the sudden urge."

"You think it might be some of your old personality coming out?" Most of the time Ryo didn’t think about KAT-TUN’s origins anymore, but moments like these reminded him and made him uneasy. 

"Probably," Kamenashi answered. He sounded untroubled by the thoughts but no matter what they showed, it couldn’t be easy to know you were once someone else – or a lot of someone else’s.

“Do you ever worry that a real memory, from your brain’s past life might come back, not just a talent?”

Kame turned away to chop some more vegetables, effectively blocking Ryo’s view of his expression as he answered.

“I try not to think about it. I guess Maru would zap us or something to make it go away.”

“Are you okay with that?” Ryo felt indignant all of a sudden. Whatever his origins Kame was a person now - performing a lobotomy every time they had a stray thought they shouldn’t just didn’t sit right with him. That indignation brought him up short – when exactly had he stopped thinking of them as things and begun to think of them as people? He found he couldn’t pinpoint the moment but something had definitely shifted in his thinking and it was mostly thanks to his time spent with Kame. 

Whatever Kame was about to answer was cut off by a large crash of thunder that sounded like it was on top of them and the light bulbs blowing out pitching them into darkness. Ryo automatically hit the deck, covering his head with his arms just in case any of the globes had shattered.

After a few moments of silence with nothing happening, he felt it safe to look up again though his heart was still trying to burst out through his chest. 

"Kame, are you all right?" he called out softly. 

"Yeah," Kame’s voice answered but it sounded a little shaky to Ryo's ears.

“Stay where you are, I’m coming over to you,” he instructed as he started a slow crawl in the direction of Kame’s voice.

“Careful,” Kame warned, “there’s food all over the floor.”

Ryo knew that already, having stuck his hand in some just as Kame’s warning came. It was still hot and Ryo stifled his gasp of pain. He didn’t want to worry Kame.

"That must have hit the house," he said just to keep the conversation going as he had to manoeuvre around the spilt food. “I wonder where we keep the candles."

Eventually he reached Kame and they grabbed onto each other like they were each other’s lifelines. 

“We should probably try and make our way towards the others,” Ryo eventually suggested. His eyesight was finally starting to adjust to the darkness and he could vaguely make out the kitchen’s tables and benches as dark blobs.

A flash of torchlight suddenly split the room, shattering Ryo’s night vision.

"Is anyone in here?" A voice called out. It sounded like Ohkura.

"We're fine," Ryo answered back. 

“Ryo-chan is that you?” The flashlight was shined squarely in his face and Ryo had to shut his eyes. 

“Kame too,” Ryo answered back though that must be pretty obvious to Ohkura from the way they were clinging to each other.

Ohkura didn’t say anything about that though, just flashed the torch away from them once again and said, 

"Come on - everyone's gathering in the living room.”

Ryo reluctantly let go of Kame and climbed to his feet. He was surprised when Kame grabbed his hand and held it tight, but he didn’t try to pull out of the grasp; just squeezed it in reassurance as he followed Ohkura through the house.

Kame didn’t let go of his hand even once they’d reached the others, dragging Ryo around as he checked everyone else was okay. Hina and Yasu were the only ones absent but they arrived a few minutes after Ryo and Kame with a number of torches and lanterns.

Maru was biting his nails. "I hope the lab's okay. There was a lot of expensive equipment in there." 

“We should probably go and check it out. Wouldn’t want a fire starting,” Yoko suggested. 

"I'll go check the power box, maybe it's just a blown fuse," Subaru offered.

With that they split up into groups. Ryo would go with Maru, Yoko and Hina to check out the lab and Subaru and Yasu would go check out the fuse box. Ryo finally let go of Kame’s hand as he grabbed a torch and got ready to set off.

“What about us?” Kame asked.

“You stay here with Tacchon,” Ryo answered.

“That’s not fair. We want to help too,” Nakamaru complained. Taguchi and Ueda nodded in agreement. Kame just crossed his arms over his chest and gave Ryo a defiant glare. Ryo rolled his eyes, thankful that the darkness was probably enough to hide it. They would choose now to get stubborn.

“Alright,” he conceded, “you can all go with Tacchon and check upstairs.”

Now it was Ohkura’s turn to look put out from where he was sitting on the couch. Ryo just ignored him and gathered up Maru, Hina and Yoko and left the room.

\------

Ryo shined his flashlight around the room as Maru moaned overdramatically about the state of the place. Ryo was wondering how he could tell. There was one or two machines at a different angle than Ryo last remembered seeing them in and a few stools were knocked over but other than that, it looked pretty much how it had before the storm to his eyes.

He stepped closer to one of the apparatus that was tilted at about 45 degrees from where it used to be. He flashed his torch around it looking for any sparks that might come out. On the other side of the room, Maru gasped out loud. Ryo turned to look and Maru was shutting one of the cupboard doors. He leaned against it heavily. 

"What's wrong?" Ryo asked.

"Oh, uh, nothing!" Maru smiled unconvincingly.

Ryo joined the others and approached the cupboards. Maru looked more unnerved with every step they took.

"Are you sure?"

Maru nodded a little too fast.

"What's in the cupboard?" Ryo asked. He was starting to feel very uneasy. They’d been checking for electrical problems, but who knew what chemicals and other things were laying around that could cause major problems if spilled. _What if some of Maru’s equipment was radioactive?_

Hina had already pulled Maru away from the cupboard and Yoko was opening it up. 

"Well?" Ryo asked nervously.

"He was right. There's nothing in here." Yoko stepped back revealing the cupboard to the others eyes. It was empty, not even a trace of any equipment, radioactive or not.

"See, I told you," Maru stated. Hina whacked him upside the head while Yoko snickered. 

“Very funny,” Ryo retorted. Now was not the time to be playing practical jokes.

“Well, it seems like everything’s mostly okay in here,” Yoko said after another quick scan with his torch.

“But it’s in ruins!” Maru whined.

“Maybe so,” Ryo replied, “but there’s nothing we can do about it until we get some proper light.” That most likely meant in the morning, unless Subaru and Yasu had managed to fix the fuse.

\----

It turned out that Ryo had been right in his assessment and they were out of power for the rest of the night. No-one had wanted to back to their own rooms in the dark so they had camped out for the night. A night on the floor followed by a whole day of staring at a computer screen meant that Ryo’s neck was aching by the time he got home. He rubbed at it tiredly as he flicked the light switch to see if it had been fixed yet – Subaru was supposed to call an electrician he knew in the morning. Nothing happened and Ryo groaned – he didn’t want another night of sleeping on the floor. 

He pulled out his phone and dialled Subaru’s number.

“Hey, I thought you were calling an electrician,” he said as the phone connected.

“I did,” Subaru replied sounding surprised. “He was supposed to be there this morning. Maru was going to let him in.”

“Well the power’s still out,” Ryo explained. “I’ll go check with Maru.”

He ended the call and made his way down to Maru’s lab. The house was surprisingly silent; It was strange not to hear music or singing after these past few weeks. Ryo wondered where KAT-TUN was. He pushed open the door and made his way inside.

Maru was busy sweeping the floor, humming one of KAT-TUN’s songs quietly to himself. Ryo waved to get his attention.

“Ryo-chan, what’s up?”

“Did the electrician guy show up?”

Maru nodded, “About an hour after you left for work.”

“Huh, he still mustn’t be finished then.” Ryo surmised. He didn’t think the job would take that long. Maybe they should track him down and find out what the problem was. 

A sudden scream filled the air. Ryo and Maru exchanged looks before darting out of the room. The scream came from outside and Ryo skidded to a stop, Maru almost crashing into him from behind as he found Yasu and Ohkura standing over a body.

“What the hell!?” 

It looked dead, a pool of some dark liquid was gathering around it. _Blood - that was definitely blood_ , Ryo’s mind supplied.

“It wasn’t us,” Yasu rushed over to explain. “We just found him.”

“Did someone just scream?” Subaru’s voice came from just up the path and Ryo turned from the scene in front of him to see the man in question approaching followed by Hina.

They all gathered up around the body. Subaru, who had actually known the man, looked livid.

"Who could have done this?" he asked angrily.

"Maybe he electrocuted himself," Ohkura supplied. 

"He's a professional," Subaru countered.

"It could still happen."

"Doesn't explain the knife sticking out of his back." Ryo pointed out. That shut any further attempts at excuses up.

"What are you guys all doing out here?" Yoko’s voice asked from behind them. They all stepped back to reveal the body.

“Whoa!” Yoko exclaimed. “Who did that?”

“That’s what we’re trying to figure out,” Ryo answered.

It seemed like Yoko wasn’t finished with his questions though. "Where’s KAT-TUN?" 

KAT-TUN? Ryo hadn’t even thought of them. He hadn’t seen them since he got home. What if whoever did this had killed them too? Or worse, what if one of them had gone crazy and been responsible for this? Maru hadn’t really known much about the brains he was stealing; could one of them have been a former murderer? Now not so former. The others seemed to be drawing up similar questions from the looks on their faces. They all took off to search the house together, not wanting to be alone to face any murderer.

As he ran, Ryo crossed his fingers in silent prayer. _Please don’t let it be Kame_. Followed by, _Please let Kame be safe._

\----------

They found Taguchi first, slumped against a wall, blood pouring out of a head wound. Maru bent down to inspect him, pressing his fingers against Taguchi’s neck to check for a pulse.

"Is he dead?" Yasu asked nervously.

"I don't think so," Maru replied after a few moments. He took his fingers from Taguchi’s neck and lifted Taguchi’s eyelids up one by one.

"Taguchi can you hear me," he called out softly then again more loudly when he got no response.

Taguchi groaned this time.

"Taguchi, where are the others?" Yoko asked. 

"The...others," Taguchi muttered so quietly that Ryo strained to hear him. He leaned in closer. Taguchi suddenly reared up and grabbed hold of his jacket. "They were after us. Thought they were going to kill..." He slumped back down, his sudden burst of energy fading away.

Ryo unhooked his jacket from Taguchi’s now limp fingers. Maru was checking Taguchi’s pulse again and giving a relieved sigh. From the way he’d spoken it sounded more like KAT-TUN were being attacked than that one of them had done the attacking. That was a small relief at least, but now someone was after them, or more than just someone.

"Who are they?" Hina was the first to voice out what they were all thinking.

"Could they mean us?" Ohkura asked.

"We're all here, and nobody else really knows about them yet.” Hina pointed out.

That was true enough. Something was niggling at Ryo’s brain though, some missing piece of information – something about Maru’s behaviour the night before and ‘others’. 

He snapped his fingers as the answer came to him, catching everyone’s attention. "That closet” He turned to Maru, “the one that was empty. What exactly was in there?"

Something flashed across Maru’s face, but Ryo couldn’t interpret it. "Nothing was in there, remember," he answered but his voice sounded evasive. 

"What was _supposed_ to be in there?" Ryo pressed.

Maru's eyes shifted, "But it's not possible."

"What's not possible? I'm confused." Ohkura was looking back and forth between them.

Ryo was starting to fit the pieces together but he didn't much like where his thoughts were headed.

"You said you made six originally. What did you do with the two who didn't work out?"

Maru suddenly found the wall next to Taguchi’s head fascinating. "Um...I put them in the closet."

"The _same_ closet that's now suspiciously empty?"

Yoko and Hina were now starting to catch on and they advanced towards Maru.

Maru turned back to them looking half-panicked, half-pleading. "They can't have got out. They weren't activated."

"Could the lightning strike have activated them?" Yoko joined in the questioning.

"It might be possible, but...,"

"Then where are they? What other explanation is there?" Ryo wanted to hear an answer, one that he could accept above the conclusion he’d reached himself; one that didn’t leave half-finished things on the loose, willing to murder and currently chasing after KAT-TUN – after Kame.

Maru just shook his head sadly. 

Ohkura put up his hand. “Still confused over here.”

“Well whatever’s happening, we can’t leave Taguchi in the hall. He needs to be in a bed and bandaged up.” Hina said, taking charge for the moment. He and Subaru each grabbed one end of Taguchi and lifted. Yoko moved over and started to explain to Ohkura what was going on as he guided them down the hall towards a nearby bedroom. Yasu moved to Maru and crouched down beside him, throwing an arm around his shoulders and gently coaxing him to follow along.

Ryo just stood there, watching everything. He knew he should follow the others – staying together was the smart thing to do at the moment – but the urge to run off and find Kame was pulling at him too. In the end, common sense prevailed and he rushed to catch up with the others. He wouldn’t be any use if he wound up dead.

\----

After they got Taguchi comfortably settled into a bed, they planned their next moves. Someone would have to stay behind to look after Taguchi, and that someone had to be Maru since he had created KAT-TUN and knew the most about them medically speaking. Ohkura and Yoko volunteered to stay with him. The others grouped together to go and search for the rest of KAT-TUN. Yoko locked the door once they’d left and Ryo suggested a stop at Subaru’s room to grab his baseball bat for a weapon.

Evening was falling by this time, causing shadows to creep into corners of every room and making them jump at every turn. Subaru had already smashed several vases with his bat after they’d overreacted to several dark shapes. 

“Wait, did you hear that?” Yasu whispered as they searched an empty bedroom. 

Everyone paused to listen carefully. Ryo strained but didn’t hear anything. He was about to say so when something caught his ear. It sounded almost like someone had been holding their breath but couldn’t stop themselves from gasping for air anymore.

“It came from the closet,” Hina whispered even softer than Yasu. They all crept closer to the closet, Subaru in the front with his bat held up in the air. He reached out, yanking the door open. Someone screamed. Subaru screamed back and swiped at the air.

“Please don’t kill me!” a familiar voice called out and Ryo instinctively jumped forward to grab Subaru’s arm and stop him from swinging again.

“Wait,” he yelled. 

“Nakamaru?” he then asked into the closet.

Subaru relaxed his arm when Ryo called out Nakamaru’s name. Nakamaru tentatively poked his head out of the closet.

“Oh, thank god!” he exclaimed. 

“Where are the others?” Ryo asked urgently. 

“I don’t know, we split up to hide,” Nakamaru replied frowning. 

“Should we take him back to Taguchi and the others?” Yasu asked. 

“There’s no time.” Ryo rejected the proposal. The longer they took the more chance of someone else getting hurt or killed. “He’ll have to come with us.”

They set off again.

\---

They found Ueda next, but he wasn’t alone. Ryo got his first look at Maru’s unfinished creations and he wished he hadn’t. It was taller than Ueda, towering over him. Its body was covered in ugly purple scars where the stitches had been. If he looked closer some stitches hadn’t been removed at all. 

Subaru lifted the bat in both hands over his head, ready to make a charge, though he wasn’t actually moving, his legs shaking. Ryo didn’t blame him for being hesitant but he was the only one with a weapon. Ryo prepared to give him a shove to get him going. Before he could do so however, Ueda’s fist came up, punching the creature hard in the face. A perfect right cross. It dropped like a stone, blood pouring from its nose.

They all rushed over, Nakamaru going straight to Ueda and giving him a huge hug.

“Wow! That was amazing. Where’d you learn that?” Hina asked.

Ueda was looking at his fist in wonderment. “I don’t know,” he replied slowly.

“What do we do with this?” Subaru asked, nudging the body with his toe. Ryo wasn’t sure whether it was unconscious or just in too much pain to react but either way it might not remain like that for long. 

“We need some rope.” Tying it up until they could get Maru to, hopefully, deactivate it was the only solution.

“I know where some rope is,” Yasu called, dashing off. Ryo called out for him to wait, he was very aware that there was still one more of these things around, but Yasu either didn’t hear him or ignored it. Thankfully he came back a few minutes later and they all helped drag the body into a nearby room and tie it to a chair.

Once that was done, Ryo turned towards Ueda. “I don’t suppose you know where Kame is?”

Ueda thought for a few minutes. “They were chasing us,” he murmured, remembering. “I think he was heading outside, hoping to lose it in the gardens.”

Ryo didn’t bother waiting for the rest; he dashed out of the room and downstairs ignoring the calls from behind him. It wasn’t a matter of finding this thing before it found Kame - from Ueda’s words it had already done so - it was getting to it before it hurt Kame. Ryo didn’t want to rely on Kame suddenly remembering boxing moves the way Ueda had done. That would be too much to expect.

He flung the back door open, not caring as it crashed into the wall. Maybe the bang would distract the thing, or maybe Kame would hear it and know he was coming to help. Once he got outside however, he had to stop and evaluate. The grounds were quite large and he had no idea where to start looking. Night had also fallen completely now. _How was he going to find him?_

He had to take a chance. He cupped his hands around his mouth and called out as loudly as he could.

“Kame!”

He listened, ears straining for any sort of response. He tried again, starting to move around as he did so. Maru’s lab was off to his right and he turned in that direction. The building might offer some sort of protection. He kept calling out as he ran, but he didn’t bother to stop and listen for replies any more. Time was of the essence.

He rounded a corner of the building, when something caught his eye off to the left; a flash of movement in the darkness. He changed direction at once pushing through some bushes, not caring that they were scraping his legs. In a small clearing Kame stood, breathing heavily. Ryo was about to rush over to him when he realised he wasn’t alone. Unlike the one that attacked Ueda, this one was closer in height to Kame but no less ugly and it was advancing on Kame in exactly the same way.

“Hey you,” Ryo called out trying to distract its attention. “Get lost on the way to the reject pile?” 

He made his tone as insulting as possible and it seemed to do the trick as the thing roared in anger and turned towards him. Ryo backed away. He didn’t want to run, it might turn its attention back to Kame but he wished he’d grabbed Subaru’s bat before he left the others. He scanned the ground, looking for anything he could use to defend himself – a stick, a rock – but there was nothing. 

He gulped as the creature approached and prepared himself to fight, hoping it at least bought time for Kame to escape, or the others to arrive and subdue it. Just as it was in swinging distance, something white flashed towards it, clocking it in the head and knocking it to the ground. Ryo blinked, straightening and looking between the creature and the object. _A baseball?_ He looked towards Kame who had a very satisfied smile on his face. _The ball Subaru had given him_ , Ryo realised, putting the pieces together, _he must have pitched it_.

Subaru, Hina and Ueda arrived on the scene, Hina berating him about running off on his own as the other two tied up the body on the ground before trying to move it. They’d left Nakamaru and Yasu with the first thing. Ryo didn’t really listen; he was too busy watching Kamenashi as he came over to help. The danger was gone but Ryo still felt amped up rather than reassured. Kame lifted his head and his eyes met Ryo’s in the torchlight. He smiled and only then could Ryo let the relief and weariness flood his body. _They were safe_.

\---

A few days later and everything was back to normal – or as normal as things ever got. Maru had deactivated the creatures, which in a fit of morbid humour everyone had taken to calling the ex-members, and made sure they couldn’t ever be brought to life again. They had moved the electrician’s body to a nearby alleyway to make it look like he was killed on the way (Maru had also done something to the body to conceal the time of death and make it look like it actually happened in the alley). Ryo wasn’t really comfortable with this aspect of the whole thing and he didn’t think the others were either, but they didn’t really have a lot of choice. Exposing the truth would be worse, especially for Maru and KAT-TUN.

Today they were all gathered in the living room once again as Ryo hung up the phone from where he’d been talking to Saito-san. He put on a solemn face as he looked at the others and smirked inwardly as they all fell for it and began to look disheartened.

“I’m sorry,” he said, “I could only get you an hour’s rehearsal time on the stage before the concert starts.”

“Ryo!” they all whined as they realised he had been tricking them. Ueda punched him on the arm for his joke. It really hurt though he tried not to show it, rubbing it surreptitiously when he thought no-one was looking.

Someone ran to the kitchen and brought back a bottle of champagne and some glasses. When everyone had a glass, Yoko climbed up onto the couch to make a toast.

“To KAT-TUN! This will be the start of something amazing.”

“To KAT-TUN!” Everyone chorused.

But Yoko hadn’t finished there. “And to Ryo! If it wasn’t for him, we wouldn’t have our first gig.”

“To Ryo!” Everyone chorused again. Ryo tried to wave it off, his face growing hot in embarrassment. 

“See I told you you’d make a great manager.” Hina nudged him with his elbow.

Ryo cleared his throat. “About that,” he started. He looked over at KAT-TUN. “If you don’t mind, I would like the job.”

“We’d love to have you as our manager,” Kame answered for all of them, raising his glass in salute. Ryo lifted his glass too, sharing a private grin with Kazuya.

“Well that’s settled then.” Yoko grinned, jumping down from the couch and moving over to Ryo to clap him on the back. “I kind of envy you now. The idol lifestyle beckons. Glitz, glamour, I’m totally jealous.” He sighed overdramatically.

From the other side of the room, Ohkura said, “Maybe if it works out for KAT-TUN we could start our own group.”

There was silence for a second at the suggestion and then everyone burst out laughing.


End file.
